Trinity Evangel Church

# Introduction We started Peter's epistle almost ten months ago to the day. I taught the opening verses, I also get the last chapter (and I took us on a brief trip into Hades in 3:18-22). These final paragraphs are a call to *humility that wrecks self-importance and stress and Satan*. This sort of staunch humility only comes by grace. In fact the whole letter has been about the true grace of God (...

# Introduction Telling the truth is simple, like riding a rocket; it does all the work but you have to hold on tight. You are a flock that cares more about truth than personal charisma or branding at least when it comes to associating with who ministers to you. Being branded as a servant is one thing, being a servant trying to make a brand for himself takes a special sort of vanity. It was no less...

# Introduction Twice in 2 Corinthians 4 Paul says, “We do not lose heart.” The phrase comes from one Greek word (ἐγκακοῦμεν) that could be taken a few ways: not fainting, not quitting, not losing heart. The chapter beings (verse 1) and ends (verse 16) with the claim. We *have* heart. 2Co4 may be the chapter that has heartened me the most for the last dozen years. It has built categories and set a...

On our first Lord’s Day assembling in our new church location. # Introduction Sometime around 700 BC Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, and his army was swallowing up nations like locusts in a plague. King Sennacherib didn't even bother traveling to the land of Judah, he sent a representative by the title Rabshakeh. The Rabshakeh talked smack against the men defending the wall in Jerusalem, using t...

from Selected Scriptures

# Introduction Jesus reproved *religious* people who claimed that they were free when their behavior proved otherwise: > "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." (John 8:34, ESV) The point of this principle is that what we do shows our hearts better than what we say is in our hearts. As it’s been said, your talk talks and your walk talks but your walk talks a whole...

# Introduction The categories in _The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity_ apply all over. One pivotal component that gives direction to the matrix is the reality that we spend most of our lives interacting with others. In our relationships there is loss and benefit, drain or gain, experienced and/or extended. The helpless are drained even if they do some good, the bandits gain as others are drained, th...

# Introduction Based on how many signs were posted and how often teachers talked about it, it sure seemed like adulthood would involve being on fire a lot more. *Stop, Drop, and Roll* really seemed like vital information. It doesn't seem to be as frequent of a safety message these days, though I believe it still applies. Its value is off the charts if it ever needs to be used. The first exhortatio...

# Introduction Have we made the point that grace is great and greater than all our unrighteousness and self-righteousness? The gospel of grace is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Christ alone shows the glory of divine love by dying for sinful men. Christ alone is our righteousness, our access to God, our mediator of peace with God. Through the grace of Christ we *rejoice* i...

# Introduction John Bunyan’s autobiography is a brutal read. He called it _Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners_, or _Grace Abounding_ for short. He knew he was a sinner but grace is the thing he just couldn’t seem to get a grasp on for page after page in his testimony. Bunyan kept getting close to comfort for his soul in Christ, close to knowing the peace of God through justification by faith,...

# Introduction Some things benefit by being balanced. Some are ruined by it. A balanced diet does the body good, but we don't try to balance time spent breathing with time spent holding our breath. Relationships have a kind of balance, and the connection between self and tribe is a constant pull. For example, is worship as an assembly or your worship as an individual more important? Does the whole...

# Introduction Is there a more important *thing* in the universe than *love*? Of course there are many other important, even vital commodities, things such as water and time, existence and awareness. But what is more powerful, more desirable, and so also in this fallen world more perverted, more defined and redefined to death, than love? The Ten Commandments can be categorized as love for God (fir...

# Introduction Peter blessed God that the elect are born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). Paul wrote that because believers have peace with God they exult in hope of the glory of God. Those who are spiritually dead have false hope at best, if they have any hope, and if they could understand what they were up against, they would be terrorized by what gives Christians hope. Hope is a gift of Go...

# Introduction Were it not for grace we would all be consumed by the thing we long for the most. Even if it misfires, some internal combustion like engine within each of us longs to see true beauty. Even if it's diluted by false ideas or dulled by half-heartedness, we want to know and be a part of ultimate glory. All this really means that we have a heart that wants to know God, to have God be ple...

# Introduction There are stories too good to be told only once. Some people enjoy going over known information, they get edification in the repetition, others enjoy seeking out new information and adding it to their collection. But there is one story in particular that is always the same and yet keeps making all things new. A key element in these stories is when things are *bad*. David and Goliath...

# Introduction Regardless of what anyone tells you, doubt doesn’t make you cool. We doubt because it makes us think that we know better, because we think it'll help us save face when the thing, whatever it was, turns out not to be true. "Hey, at least I wasn't gullible like those twits.” Christians should be more comfortable looking crazy. We should boast more in the things we can't see. We are _b...

# Introduction Men are manipulators. It is not necessarily a bad thing, at least depending on the definition of manipulation. The Latin word *manus* means "hand." To manipulate is a derivative that means to handle, so manipulation is the the word for putting your hands to something; a manual transmission is hand-operated. It obviously has picked up some nasty metaphorical baggage over the years, s...

# Introduction Last summer when we agreed to cover 1 Peter during our Sunday evening sermon series I made recommendations to the other pastors on paragraphs we each should preach. I assigned myself this section, 1 Peter 3:18-22, for…fun. If you're keeping note, you remember that Dave taught last and covered 3:1-7. Jonathan has a message already for verses 8 and following, but he had an opportunity...

Everyone who believes is a son of Abraham. There are some who are sons of Abraham who do _not_ believe. There are two ways to call Abraham, "father Abraham," and while both ways include blessings, only one of the ways gets blessings _proper_, salvific, eternal. When God called Abram/Abraham God promised to bring blessing to the nations through Abraham (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8). This is quite s...

# Introduction The first song we sang this morning was “Blessed Assurance.” It’s an old-school Baptist hymnbook staple, and it’s good enough for what it is. I’ve seen evangelism/discipleship materials in which step one was get the other person to pray the sinner’s prayer, and step two was get them to embrace their assurance of salvation. That’s not what I would do, though I do talk to a considerab...

# Introduction In his introduction to _The Death of Death in the Death of Christ_, J. I. Packer summarizes the gospel in three words: **God saves sinners**. It's true from start to finish. It acknowledges man's depravity and inability (man is a sinner who needs saving). It exalts God's sovereignty and grace (He plans for and provides salvation). It proclaims the Son's effective propitiation (all f...

# Introduction It is more surprising that anyone is saved than that anyone is damned. We know this. Men argue against it through lying teeth. We all know that there is a God, we all know that God is good, we all know that men who disobey God deserve hell. Pagan theologians don’t describe it exactly the same, it isn't acknowledged with honesty by every pagan non-theologian. But it is true. The last...